Cordovan takes its name from a leather, and the reference is to surface rather than to pattern. What it reproduces is the character of a worked hide or a sheet of parchment: an even field with a subtle grain running through it, slight variation in density, and none of the flatness that paint or a plain paper gives a wall.
It is a semi-plain, which is a more useful category than it sounds. There is no motif to place and nothing to match visually, so the wall behaves as a background, but it has enough movement in it that pictures, mirrors and furniture stand against it properly, which they never quite do against flat colour. The leathery register of the range suits rooms with books and timber in them.
Because it has no pattern to align, it is designed to be hung without a set match, drop to drop as it comes. That makes it forgiving on walls that are out of true and economical around reveals, returns and over doors, where offcuts can be used rather than discarded. It belongs in a study, a library, a hall or a dining room, the more serious rooms, where it gives depth without asking for attention.
